The academy which boasts of 6,000 to 8,000 voting members are most likely to get swayed by the national mood in the US. There is a point person for every movie at the Oscars, who is supposed to promote the film and is trusted by the panel. By keeping all these in mind, Tamil cinema making its way to the final list is quite ambitious.

We'd like to explore the prequel idea. I think it would be best suited as a web series on some digital platform. The prequel will be called 'Rajan Vagaira,' and it will track the rise of Rajan's character in 'Vada Chennai' and how he built his empire.

Rajkumar was the winner of 'Naalaya Iyakkunar Season 2,' and I was impressed with his short film. He joined me as an assistant when I started the pre-production work for 'Vada Chennai.'

The younger generation of filmmakers is concerned about our roots, rather than making films with characters plucked out of the cloud or some English DVD. Actually since 2000, Tamil cinema is going through some positive changes.

Once, a man at the customs duty check at the Delhi Airport asked me a question in Hindi, and I told him that I didn't speak the language. He got angry and said, 'How could you not speak in Hindi? Hindi is our mother tongue.' I told him that it wasn't my mother tongue. He got furious, and made me wait for over 45 minutes.